In addition, Heikki Kovalainen (2005), Nelson Piquet Jr. (2006) and Lucas di Grassi (2007)—all runners up—became Renault test drivers the following year.

Sergio Pérez was given the drive alongside Kamui Kobayashi, another former GP2 driver and GP2 Asia Series winner, at Sauber.

Some drivers however have reached Formula One without competing in GP2, including Sebastian Vettel, Paul di Resta, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Éric Vergne, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen.

[4] Current Formula One drivers that have graduated from the GP2 series include Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly (who triumphed in the 2016 staging amongst various others).

Lewis Hamilton stepping straight into the McLaren team and Nico Rosberg, Nico Hülkenberg, Pastor Maldonado and Kazuki Nakajima going straight to Williams have particularly highlighted how F1 teams take GP2 seriously, and Hamilton's Formula One World Championship title in only his second year in F1 is probably the strongest example of the series creating highly competitive racers.

The qualifying session decided the grid order for Saturday's race which had a length of 180 kilometres (112 miles).

The GP2 Series car was used by all of the teams, and features a Dallara carbon-fiber monocoque chassis powered by a Mecachrome normally-aspirated fuel-injected V8 engine and Pirelli dry slick and rain treaded tyres.

[citation needed] The 4.0-litre naturally-aspirated electronic indirect fuel-injected Mecachrome V8 engine features internal, cartographic and software upgrades designed to improve performance and fuel consumption.

[7] FIA Formula 2 Championship Series engines are rev-limited to 10000 rpm and need a rebuild after 4000 to 4500 km.

The engine lubrication is a dry sump type, cooled by a single water pump.

Mecachrome V8 GP2 engines were crated and shipped to all GP2 teams on a serial-number basis as determined by the sanctioning body (FIA) to ensure equality and fairness in distribution.

The current gearbox has been manufactured by Hewland and features an 8-position barrel with ratchet body and software upgrades as well as a new transverse shafts fixing system designed to facilitate improved gear selection.

Racing exclusively supplied wheel rims for all GP2 Series cars from 2005 until the final season.

Brembo supplied monobloc brake calipers and disc bells, which are exclusive to the GP2 Series.

Hitco also supplies carbon brake discs and pads for FIA Formula 2 Championship.

The car also features internal cooling upgrades, a new water radiator, radiator duct, oil/water heat exchanger, modified oil degasser, new oil and water pipes and new heat exchanger fixing brackets.

The 2005 season began on April 23, 2005, on the weekend of the San Marino Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.

In the pre-season test to decide the inaugural season's car numbers, the iSport International and HiTech/Piquet Racing teams showed a competitive edge.

It was won by German Nico Rosberg, who was subsequently hired by the WilliamsF1 Team, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing second.

After championship holder Nico Rosberg's move to the Williams F1 team, and runner-up Heikki Kovalainen's move to be reserve driver at Renault F1, Nelson Piquet Jr. in the Piquet Sports car was installed as the early title favourite, though the ART Grand Prix cars of Alexandre Prémat and Lewis Hamilton also had fairly short odds, given ART were reigning champions.

A dominant run by the Briton took him into the championship lead before the balance came back into Piquet Jr.'s favour.

[20] This was also the first time that the calendar supported all of the F1 races in Europe with a late deal to run at the Valencia Street Circuit.

It was won by Giorgio Pantano for Racing Engineering, with Bruno Senna finishing distant runner-up.

The 2009 season began and ended on the Iberian peninsula, with the first race weekend at Circuit de Catalunya (9–10 May) and ending in the stand-alone headline event (i.e. not supporting a corresponding Formula One event) at Portugal's Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (19–20 September).

It was the last season for the Dallara GP2/08 chassis and Bridgestone as the series' official tyre supplier.

The championship was won by reigning GP2 Asia champion Romain Grosjean at the penultimate round of the series.

Davide Valsecchi (DAMS) won the title by 25 points from Arden's Luiz Razia, with Lotus GP's Esteban Gutiérrez third.

Fabio Leimer won the title driving for Racing Engineering, with a total of 201 points and 3 wins.

Stoffel Vandoorne, driving for ART Grand Prix, finished runner-up in Abu Dhabi.

[26] Formula One pundit Will Buxton provided commentary for the UK broadcast until he departed at the end of the 2014 season and was succeeded by Alex Jacques.